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Post by schlendrian on Apr 12, 2020 17:52:28 GMT
In regards to paragraphs. It seems to me there's a trend towards longer gamebooks, sometimes with more than 1000 paragraphs.I'm often sceptical of this and prefer more traditional lengths, perhaps about 500 to make it epic but still reasonably manageable.
What's your opinion? Is there a number of paragraphs you consider optimal? Maybe depending on mood/type of story/whatev'?
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Post by stevendoig on Apr 12, 2020 20:43:26 GMT
regarding this - what is the longest gamebook ever released?
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Post by schlendrian on Apr 12, 2020 20:55:40 GMT
I have "Rider of the black sun" sitting in front of me, which claims on its back to be at more than 1350 paragraphs to be the biggest gamebook ever released. Can't verify that, but I don't know of any bigger
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Apr 12, 2020 23:26:55 GMT
I believe "The Sword of the Bastard Elf" is 1825 sections and it shows. You should check this thing out just to see the size of it. Its massive.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,462
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Apr 13, 2020 6:17:10 GMT
The number of sections isn't really the issue as a large number of sections won't necessarily mean a long playthrough if those additional sections cover mutually exclusive pathways. Compare Crown of Kings to Legend of Zagor. The former has twice the number of sections but probably takes half as long to play.
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Post by stevendoig on Apr 13, 2020 8:40:08 GMT
yep the Sorcery books are nothing like as big as you'd think. So many references are taken up by the spell choices.
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809 
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Apr 13, 2020 11:53:32 GMT
400 paragraphs.
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Post by a moderator on Apr 13, 2020 15:50:00 GMT
A gamebook should be as long as it needs to be, and that will vary according to the scope of the story. While there is something aesthetically pleasing about having a round number of sections, I'd rather authors didn't go in for throwing in unnecessary padding, splitting sections up for no reason other than to make up the numbers, or awkwardly condensing encounters.
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Post by schlendrian on Apr 15, 2020 17:44:00 GMT
Thanks everyone for the answers. I see now that my question was perhaps a bit naive, as you are right that number of paragraphs and length of story can be very different. It was mainly born out of the fact that "Riders of the black sun" uses its massive paragraph count as a selling point. Just from a haptic perspective, I do dislike "bricks" as books, and so would welcome breaking up books that are longer than, say, 800 into two books if the story really needs this many paragraphs.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Apr 15, 2020 18:45:19 GMT
"Do you wish to search for secret doors/hidden passages/booby traps? You find none" seems to be the go-to choice for padding out the books to 400 sections.
I actually love the huge books myself Schlendrian. I just have to acknowledge that unlike a Fighting Fantasy book, even one single playthrough is likely going to take multiple sitdowns.
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